THE MOSSES OF CHESHIRE. 308 



Cash (C), also proved of material aid. Grindon's Manchester Flora 

 has been utilized as far as its ambiguity (as to the division of 

 responsibility for the various records) would permit. The remaining 

 records are extracted from various periodicals and handbooks of 

 Mosses, except those to which no collector's name is attached. 

 These last are given on my own responsibility, and I regret that 

 I have not been able to render them more numerous and important. 



It would be presumptive on my part to affect to verify records 

 by bryologists of such standing and well-known accuracy as are 

 many named in the list, therefore the sign ! is used only to imply 

 that I have found the moss still existing in the locality indicated 

 within the last five years ; and the double sign !! indicates that a 

 specimen from the station is in my herbarium. Species which are 

 now believed to be first recorded for v.-c. 58 are marked with an 

 asterisk. 



In presenting this list, I am only too conscious of its im- 

 perfections, but I hope its compilation will be of some little help 

 to those studying the distribution of our species, or at least form a 

 nucleus for future work in the county. 



The number of species and varieties exceeds that of the neigh- 

 bouring v.-c. S. Lancashire by forty-five, from which we may infer, 

 either that the county has been more carefully worked, or that the 

 climatic and geological conditions of Cheshire are the more suitable 

 to the growth of mosses. But, speaking broadly, the physiography 

 of the two counties is almost identical. In each we have a belt of 

 arid sand dunes on the extreme west, with a flora that is sui generis. 

 Next to this, a broad tract of new red sandstone, divided on the 

 east by a thin wedge of Permian limestone from a breadth of mill- 

 stone grit. There is an extensive forest tract at Delamere, a feature 

 which is entirely absent from S. Lancashire. Probably the true 

 explanation of the superiority of Cheshire as a moss-producing 

 country (for individually as well as specifically they are more 

 numerous than in v.-c. 59) is to be found in its greater freedom 

 from the baneful influences of the proximity of large cities and 

 factories. In S. Lancashire we are scarcely beyond the smoke 

 radius of one large city before we penetrate that of the next, and 

 few mosses flourish in such an atmosphere. The list is arranged 

 according to the sequence of species in Mr. Dixon's Handbook 

 Catalogue of British Mosses. 



Sphagnum cymbifolium Ehrh. Staley Brushes I (W). Wirral 

 (M). — Var. sguarrosulum Nees. Staley Brushes {W). — ^S'. tenellum 

 Ehrh. Bebbington Heath and Bidston Hill (M) (not seen recently, 

 Wheldon). Carrington Moss, ilimi !! — S. subsecundum Nees. Carr 

 Brook and Staley Brushes ! (TF). Hale Moss, Hunt !! — Var. con- 

 tortiim Schultz. Staley Brushes (IF). — Var. auriculatum Ldb. 

 Delamere (IF) !! — Forma submersum. Lindow Common [W) !! — 

 S. laricinum Spruce. Vale Royal, Wilson [^). Over (IF) !1 — S. teres 

 Angstr. Knutsford Moor, Wybunbury Bog, and Newchurch Bog, 

 Hobkirk's Synopsis. — S. squarrosum Pers. Hattersley (PF)!! 

 Wirral ! Fl. Liverpool. — S. acutifolium'Ehvh. Staley Brushes ! (TF). 

 Wallasey Moss {M). — S. Jlmbriatum Wils. Lindow Common, 



